Subways to Get Station Upgrades, and Governor Gets His Way

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The closed 36th Avenue station in Astoria, Queens, is covered in the billion-dollar initiative to install amenities in nearly three dozen stations that some have criticized as cosmetic.CreditAn Rong Xu for The New York Times

What had seemed like a rare win for Mayor Bill de Blasio — sidelining Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s plan to add amenities like new lighting and USB ports at nearly three dozen New York City subway stations — turned into another defeat on Thursday when the subway’s governing board approved Mr. Cuomo’s plan.

The 10-3 vote by the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway, to approve contracts to refurbish nine of the stations essentially ended the dispute between the two leaders in familiar fashion — with the governor having the upper hand.

The $250 million in upgrades are part of a billion-dollar plan, known as the Enhanced Station Initiative, that has been criticized by some transit advocates and the mayor as too heavily focused on cosmetics at a time when the subway faces more pressing needs, like fixing an antiquated infrastructure that has contributed to its dismal performance.

And advocates for the disabled were angered that the plan to overhaul a total of 33 stations does not include funds for elevators in a system in which less than a quarter of the 472 subway stations are accessible.

“It just seems if we are investing a billion in station upgrades we think that some of those stations should get elevators,” said Polly Trottenberg, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation. “I don’t understand nonetheless how they reached the decision, picking some of these stations.”

But Mr. Cuomo and transit officials have argued that improving the appearance of stations is part of improving the experience for riders and that the system is already undergoing a major face-lift as part of the subway emergency plan that was begun last summer.

At Thursday’s meeting, Andy Byford, the president of New York City Transit, the M.T.A.’s subway division, offered a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Cuomo’s plan, arguing that some of the work addressed structural issues that could no longer be ignored. “If they were purely cosmetic then I would have a problem with it,” Mr. Byford said.

Mr. Byford said he had spent weeks analyzing the stations slated to be enhanced and had come to understand why things like elevators were not part of the plan, explaining that some of the stations were close to accessible stations, while in other cases figuring out how to make a station compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act would drag out the necessary work.

“To wait for perfection at every station?’’ he said.“Some will fall into a dangerous state of disrepair, and you will fall into my scenario of, ‘yes it’s ADA-compliant but oops’” — the station would be inaccessible because it had fallen apart.

The M.T.A. is already adding elevators to some subway stations, the result of a settlement in the 1990s with the federal government. It is also spending $1 billion to make 19 stations accessible as part of the current capital plan.

In endorsing the station plan, Mr. Byford said he looked at factors such as a station’s location and the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood. “It’s not just who shouts loudest, which station gets it,” Mr. Byford said.

Mr. Byford also said a consultant had been hired to analyze the city’s inaccessible subway stations over the next two years to determine the feasibility and cost of making all stations accessible.

But that was of little solace to advocates for the disabled.

“Thirty years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, three-quarters of New York’s subway stations remain closed to people who can’t use stairs,” Jon Orcutt, the director of communications and advocacy for Transit Center, a research group, said in an email. “Despite NYC Transit President Andy Byford’s ‘new understanding’ of this program, there is still no M.T.A. strategy, plan or goal for taking N.Y.C. subway accessibility forward in the 21st century.”

Despite Mr. Byford’s efforts, the votes on the station plan still fell along political lines, with the three opposing votes cast by members representing the city, including Ms. Trottenberg, the transportation commissioner.

As he left M.T.A. headquarters, Charles G. Moerdler, a board member who supported the governor’s station plan, expressed frustration at the drawn-out process. “This tit-for-tat business,” he said shaking his head, “it’s just a political game.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Despite Mayor’s Qualms, Governor Gets His Way On Subway Upgrades. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe